Upcoming series: Jozi-H premieres Oct. 13 on CBC

Ancient customs and cutting-edge medicine square up for a head-on collision in JOZI-H, a gripping new 13-part medical drama premiering Friday, Oct. 13 at 9 p.m. on CBC Television.

Set in Johannesburg, South Africa, JOZI-H is about the personal struggles faced by a varied team of international doctors, surgeons and nurses, dedicated to saving lives at the world’s highest profile emergency medicine facility-Johannesburg Metropolitan Hospital. Filled with complex characters and intriguing storylines, the series is set in an intense crucible of culture clashes that sets it apart from any medical series ever produced.

JOZI-H’s reputation for trauma work is legendary. Overseas professionals would give anything for the privilege of training there. It’s where modern western medicine meets traditional African healing; where ground-breaking HIV/AIDS research leads the way in search of a cure; where diseases no longer found in the western world remain a deadly challenge; and the volume of violent crime forces interns to become world experts on trauma in weeks, rather than years. Most of the medical team-originally from Canada, the U.S. and Britain-are on their own personal “tour of duty”. They struggle to deal with the challenges of life, love and medicine against an intense, ever-changing landscape.

Vincent Walsh (Hemingway vs. Callaghan) stars as Dr. Russ Monsour. Hiding the fact that he’s half native, the recently divorced Winnipeg doctor wishes to disappear into a place where no one knows him. Sarah Allen (Booky Makes Her Mark) is Jenny Langford, a paediatric surgical registrar posted for six months in South Africa. With an inflexible bureaucracy standing in the way, Dr. Langford has to fight for the drugs to treat her young HIV/AIDS patients, while acting as single mother for her own child born with spinal bifida. These foreign surgeons, along with a local mix of doctors and nurses, band together to form an overworked, underpaid and over-dedicated team of health care workers. Their backgrounds are diverse and their pasts incomparable, yet each is united in an effort to heal all those who enter the hospital.

The series is a co-production between Canadian-based Inner City Films (Ekhaya: A Family Chronicle, North/South), and Morula Pictures, a leading South African production company headed by Mfundi Vundla (producer of the hit soap Generations). JOZI-H is produced in association with the South African Broadcasting Corporation and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.